Yet more books about the middle ages

[msmcknittington]

Friends:

What does everybody think about Norman F. Cantor? Will he be useful to me in my "Smells Like the Holy Spirit" research, or does he do "Bad Old Days" writing? Any books in particular I should read?

I keep realizing that I know next to nothing about the middle ages, because of things like this. Norman F. Cantor is a very prominent author of medieval history, and I really have no concept of his work. And yet, somehow, I still know more about the middle ages than most people off the street. There's something wrong in that.

_{Yes, I am still intending to work on my novel-y thing, even if it means being very silly indeed in the process. And dedicating NaNoWriMo 2009 to it.}

Comments

[ciorstan.livejournal.com]

If you think The Venerable Gieses are a little on the dry side, you will not be able to make it through Tuchman without falling into a coma. Dryyyyyyy. However, she, at least, has her shit togher facts straight.

Manchester was not a historian, he was a reporter. He has been responsible for the circulation of the worst factoids in circulation of the Middle Ages; at one point I tracked back exactly WHO asserted the medievals used to cover up the taste and smell of rotting meat with spices, and sure enough, it's in this book. Let's count them, NINE errors of fact in the first ten pages...

I'm sorry, we don't eat spoiled meat because IT MAKES US SICK. Medieval folks were just as likely to die because of eating spoiled food as we are today-- and less likely to survive because of, yanno, no antibiotics to kill the crap running rampant through one's system. They weren't real big on cause and effect back then, but they were just as capable of observing that BAD MEAT = SICK as we are.

Oh, and the kicker? He admits IN THE BOOK that he'd written this piece of trash when he was ill and needed the money, and later conceded that it was not... a good piece of scholarship.

Um. Am I ranting?

[lady-guenievre.livejournal.com]

Rant on and PREACH IT. If only that book AND that myth would GO THE F*** away....